Abigail Johnsonhttp://abigailjohnsonbooks.com
YA AuthorSat, 02 Dec 2017 17:21:26 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1https://i0.wp.com/abigailjohnsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/cropped-aviary_1497719214567.png?fit=32%2C32Abigail Johnsonhttp://abigailjohnsonbooks.com
3232107433160Happy Book Birthday to The First To Know!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/happy-book-birthday-to-the-first-to-know/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/happy-book-birthday-to-the-first-to-know/#respondTue, 07 Nov 2017 16:16:33 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3737Today is the book birthday for my sophomore novel! The First To Know is on sale in bookstores across the country in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. I used up all my good words in the book, but I'm so happy and thankful that I get to keep creating characters and stories to share with you. Thank [...]]]>

Today is the book birthday for my sophomore novel! The First To Know is on sale in bookstores across the country in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook. I used up all my good words in the book, but I’m so happy and thankful that I get to keep creating characters and stories to share with you. Thank you!

Scroll down to read or listen to an excerpt, check out the amazing early reviews, and make sure you order a copy via the links below:

TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL?

Don’t miss the second gripping and heartfelt story from the author of If I Fix You! A girl’s plan to find her father’s birth family turns potentially devastating when the secret DNA test she has done reveals that she has a half brother her age she never knew about.

Dana Fields’s father never knew his parents. When Dana secretly does a DNA test for her dad, hoping to find him some distant relatives for his birthday, her entire world implodes. Instead of a few third cousins, Dana discovers a half brother her age whose very existence means her parents’ happy marriage is a lie.

Dana’s desire to know her half brother, Brandon, and the extent of her dad’s deception, clashes with her wish not to destroy her family. When she sees the opportunity to get to know Brandon through his cousin, the intense yet kind Chase, she takes it. But the more she finds out about Brandon, her father’s past and the irresistible guy who’ll never forgive her if he discovers the truth, the more she sees the inevitable fallout from her own lies. With her family crumbling around her, Dana must own up to her actions and find a way to heal the breach—for everyone—before they’re torn apart for good.

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THE FIRST TO KNOW excerpt

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/happy-book-birthday-to-the-first-to-know/feed/037372 More Books Coming Soon!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/2-more-books-coming-soon/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/2-more-books-coming-soon/#commentsTue, 31 Oct 2017 21:32:06 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3710I'm so excited to finally share the news that I've signed a new deal with Harlequin Teen for two more books!!! I'm thrilled to continue working with my amazing editor and all the wonderful people at Harlequin Teen and I cannot wait for you to read these new books. Here's the official announcement: Natashya Wilson [...]]]>

I’m so excited to finally share the news that I’ve signed a new deal with Harlequin Teen for two more books!!! I’m thrilled to continue working with my amazing editor and all the wonderful people at Harlequin Teen and I cannot wait for you to read these new books. Here’s the official announcement:

Natashya Wilson at Harlequin Teen has acquired Abigail Johnson‘s new book, Even If I Fall, about a figure skater coping with her brother’s murder conviction while falling for the last person she ever expected: the victim’s brother. Publication is slated for winter 2019; Kim Lionetti at BookEnds Literary Agency negotiated the two-book deal for world rights.

If you want even more info about EVEN IF I FALL, there might be some teaser images in my newsletter next week. Sign up here so you don’t miss it!

Add EVEN IF I FALL to your Goodreads shelf:

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/2-more-books-coming-soon/feed/13710YA Scavenger Hunt w/ Fonda Lee & Bonus Giveawayhttp://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/yashfall2017/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/yashfall2017/#commentsTue, 03 Oct 2017 15:30:54 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3603Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from [...]]]>

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt.There are SEVEN contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM–but there is also a RED, BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, PINK, & PURPLE team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the gold team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by October 8th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting Fonda Lee, the award-winning author of young adult science fiction novels Zeroboxer (Flux), the Exo series (Scholastic), and the gangster fantasy Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City (Orbit). She is a recovering corporate strategist, a black belt martial artist, and an action movie aficionado. She loves a good Eggs Benedict. Fonda can be found online at www.fondalee.com and on Twitter @fondajlee and you can find more about EXO here!

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

For the hunt, Fonda is sharing the cover and a sneak peek for CROSS FIRE, the sequel to EXO.

(Click to enlarge)

Description:
It’s been a century of peace since Earth became a colony of an alien race with far reaches into the galaxy. Some die-hard extremists still oppose alien rule on Earth, but Donovan Reyes isn’t one of them. His dad holds the prestigious position of Prime Liaison in the collaborationist government, and Donovan’s high social standing along with his exocel (a remarkable alien technology fused to his body) guarantee him a bright future in the security forces. That is, until a routine patrol goes awry and Donovan’s abducted by the human revolutionary group Sapience, determined to end alien control.

When Sapience realizes whose son Donovan is, they think they’ve found the ultimate bargaining chip. But the Prime Liaison doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, not even for his own son. Left in the hands of terrorists who have more uses for him dead than alive, the fate of Earth rests on Donovan’s survival. Because if Sapience kills him, it could spark another galactic war. And Earth didn’t win the last one . . .

(Click to enlarge)

Sneak Peek:

CROSS FIRE(the sequel to EXO)coming June 2018

Donovan labored his way up a rocky embankment with a rifle over his back, wearing only shorts, a T-shirt, and boots against a cold so brutal that it seemed to freeze the moisture in his mouth and the sweat against his armored skin. His lungs and legs were screaming in protest and he wasn’t sure if he felt light-headed from the thin air up here or sheer accumulated fatigue. The other thirty-five members of SecPac Cadre 198 Alpha panted up the ridge along with him, managing, somehow, to keep their rough formation together as loose stones slid under their feet, tumbling down the slope and over the edge of the precipice.

Donovan spared a glance behind and instantly regretted it. A misplaced step here would result in a painful and humiliating trip back back down the cliff at speeds much higher than he’d experienced on the way up, and he’d likely take out a few teammates behind him as part of the descent. Only two more weeks of this, he told himself. I can survive two more weeks. Then he could look forward to six months back in Round Three, free from the torment of biannual Combat Readiness Preparation—CRP for short, or as trainees called it, “crap sessions.”

“Hurry, please.” Amrita, from Round Ten in Indo Tibet, was Donovan’s partner today. She was no stranger to high altitudes and blistering cold. Clambering just ahead of him, she latched armored fingers around a jutting stone and shoved her boot into a foothold, testing it with her full weight. The back of her sweat-drenched tank top was frozen as stiff as cardboard. Amrita was incredibly tough and hilariously polite. Many of the female soldiers-in-erze kept up with the men in terms of banter and ribaldry, but Amrita never tried. She could do push-ups for as long as anyone, but would say, in her slightly lilting voice, “Please pass me the E720 plain-tip cartridges,” as if she were asking for lemon wedges at tea.

Amrita looked back at him. “This part’s less steep. Follow my path. And hurry, please.” A hint of urgency had crept into her voice. “We’re at twenty-five minutes.”

They were expected to cover the prescribed four-mile distance in under thirty minutes. A perfectly reasonable expectation for young, fit exos—unless they were practically unclothed at five degrees below zero Fahrenheit and the last quarter of a mile involved scrambling up a frozen mountainside. To stay warm, they had to keep their exocels fully raised, but that slowed their pace and wore a person out fast. The key was to get your core temperature up quickly, bring your armor down partway, and make up time like hell on the flat sections, then armor up again when the cold and wind caught up to you as you crawled the steep segments.

Donovan watched Amrita’s foot placements, following her lead. She was nimbler at this part than he was, but though she urged him on, she did get ahead of him. That was forbidden.

Amrita reached the top of the embankment and Donovan hurried to clamber up beside her, squinting against the glare of the stark Mongolian sunlight, lungs and muscles burning even as his teeth chattered. Flat ground lay ahead of them at last; Donovan repositioned his rifle, gripping it in proper carry position as he pushed his numb legs into a run. Amrita might be quicker than him on the climb, but Donovan was faster in a straight sprint. He passed her, falling to a brisk but controlled pace directly in front of his partner and taking the brunt of the wind resistance as they headed into the final stretch. Less than thirty paces ahead of them ran the two South Americans from Round Twelve, Fernando and Matias, then Jet and his current partner, long-legged Kamogelo from Round Seventeen. At the very front of the group, two zhree Soldiers—the group’s pacers, led the way with their rapid, six-limbed scuttle. Donovan heard Amrita closing at his heels; he rebalanced his overworked exocel and lengthened his stride, pushing them both harder toward the finish point.

Thaddeus Lowell jogged down the line in the opposite direction, fresh-faced and shouting at the top of his lungs. As one of the three cadre counselors, Thad was enthusiastic in fulfilling his responsibility to encourage the younger exos. “Come on, move your fat asses, you lead-footed slackers! A little cold never hurt a stripe. Be glad you’re not doing your crap session at Round Fifteen!” That’s where Vic was now, with Cadre 198 Foxtrot in a desert in South-East Africa.

“Round Three represent!” Thad gave Donovan a high five as they passed each other. Donovan was too exhausted to reply, and his lips were too cold to form words anyway. He and Amrita passed the finish markers—two small piles of stones with yellow spray paint on them—and staggered into line next to Jet. Four seconds later, Leon and his partner, Maddison from Round One in Australasia, huffed up on their other side. It was too cold to drop armor, but the exos stood attentively at parade rest, noisily recovering their breath and trying not to shiver too much as they cooled. Within minutes, the rest of the cadre arrived in pairs and fell into line.

Except for one. The last to arrive, big, sandy-haired Dmitri from Round Seven, sprinted into place two seconds before the timer went off in Commander Li’s hand. Everyone down the line breathed a sigh of relief. It was the first time they’d all made it in under thirty minutes.

Commander Li, who was taking time out of his busy schedule to spend three days as a guest instructor at Camp Govi before returning east to Round Eleven, was quite a bit shorter than Commander Tate, but with his arms crossed, armor raised, and SecPac uniform immaculate, Donovan could tell that he was as towering a figure in Round Eleven as Tate was in Round Three. The commander stowed the stopwatch and surveyed the group of armored young men and women. His piercing eyes reached the end of the line and landed on Dmitri.

“Where is your partner?” he demanded. The portable translation machine Li carried picked up his words and transmitted them in English into the earbud in Donovan’s left ear. Every trainee wore the same device to communicate with international cadre mates and instructors, as well as zhree supervisors, the staff Nurse, and occasional visitors. Donovan shifted his eyes and surreptiously counted down the line; he knew his cadre mates were doing the same. Thirty-five. One missing. Dmitri’s partner today, Jong-Kyu from Round Eleven, was not there.

“He had to turn back, sir,” Dmitri explained in hurried Russian. “He caught sick last night and had trouble breathing within the first few minutes. One of the nurses-in-erze took—”

“What were your orders for this task?” Li asked in a tone that made everyone flinch.

“To . . . to run the course in under thirty minutes, sir,” Dmitri stammered.

“Wrong!” Li barked at him. “The orders were for the cadre to run the course in under thirty minutes. I do not see the entire cadre present, do you, trainee?”

“No, sir,” Dmitri said, visibly paling. Donovan cringed in sympathy for him. Dmitri had unwittingly broken the first rule of being a soldier-in-erze: always, always stay with your erze mate.

During CRP, partner assignments changed every three days. It was disorienting the first few times, but one became accustomed to it. Everything was done in two-person teams. Each pair of exos was expected to arrive at training activities together and to complete tasks jointly. All grades and punishments applied to both trainees. The rule held outside of training exercises as well. You didn’t leave the dining hall table until your assigned erze mate was done eating. If your partner needed to use the bathroom, you went too and stood outside the door.

It bordered on ludicrous, but there was a purpose. In cities around the world, SecPac officers patrolled in pairs, which scrambled at a moment’s notice into strike teams of four, six, eight, ten, or more to conduct missions or react to terrorist threats. SecPac training and terminology was the same across the world; with a few words of shorthand speech, two teams from one Round and two from another could fall into an instant understanding of roles and function as if they’d been trained together. Under such circumstances, it was vital that they trust each other immediately.

“Wrong!” Li barked again. “Pok Jong-Kyu failed to inform his erze mates that he could not run the course without assistance. The rest of the cadre failed to notice the problem. The fault lies with all of you. The failure belongs to all of you. Drop! Armor down!”

All thirty-five teenage exos dropped immediately into plank position on the rocky ground, armor completely lowered. Donovan gasped. Pulling his exocel down was like plunging into an icy lake: the freezing wind struck his bare skin like a full-body slap. Within seconds, his arms were shaking. Next to him, he could hear Amrita’s teeth chattering violently.

“Soldiers-in-erze are always true to their oaths. They always obey orders. And they always stay with their erze mates.” Commander Li’s boots strode up and down the line through Donovan’s field of view. “Each of you tested as having the physical qualities, intelligence, and character required to be a soldier-in-erze. But that is not enough. Every year our erze master spends weeks traveling the world to conduct erze selections. He looks for something more: a willingness to consider the erze above the individual, to place others ahead of yourself.”

Donovan dug his bare fingers into the ground and bit the inside of his cheek, trying to distract himself with pain. The strain of not allowing his exocel to rise was unbearable, but if Commander Li saw any panotin on their backs, they’d be here even longer.

“You will run the course every day until you succeed. Together, or not at all. You will carry your erze mates on your backs if need be,” Commander Li declared. His boots came to a halt not far from Donovan’s head. The vast and harshly beautiful steppe stretched in every direction so that it seemed the exos were atop the world and alone in it, save for each other.

“The erze has existed since before we humans came to be, and now it connects all of us who carry these markings on our hands,” Commander Li said. “It will always be there for you, and as long as you live, you will serve and obey the erze.”

CONTINUE THE HUNT

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Fonda Lee, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is7. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the gold team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

BONUS GIVEAWAY

Want a chance to win even more books? I’m giving away a paperback copy of my debut novel If I Fix You. Enter by filling out the Rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway is open internationally.

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/yashfall2017/feed/383603Excerpt of THE FIRST TO KNOWhttp://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/excerpt-of-the-first-to-know/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/excerpt-of-the-first-to-know/#respondThu, 14 Sep 2017 15:56:51 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3592Description: Don't miss the second gripping and heartfelt story from the author of If I Fix You! A girl's plan to find her father's birth family turns potentially devastating when the secret DNA test she has done reveals that she has a half brother her age she never knew about. Dana Fields's father never knew [...]]]>

Description:Don’t miss the second gripping and heartfelt story from the author of If I Fix You! A girl’s plan to find her father’s birth family turns potentially devastating when the secret DNA test she has done reveals that she has a half brother her age she never knew about.

Dana Fields’s father never knew his parents. When Dana secretly does a DNA test for her dad, hoping to find him some distant relatives for his birthday, her entire world implodes. Instead of a few third cousins, Dana discovers a half brother her age whose very existence means her parents’ happy marriage is a lie.

Dana’s desire to know her half brother, Brandon, and the extent of her dad’s deception, clashes with her wish not to destroy her family. When she sees the opportunity to get to know Brandon through his cousin, the intense yet kind Chase, she takes it. But the more she finds out about Brandon, her father’s past and the irresistible guy who’ll never forgive her if he discovers the truth, the more she sees the inevitable fallout from her own lies. With her family crumbling around her, Dana must own up to her actions and find a way to heal the breach—for everyone—before they’re torn apart for good.

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/excerpt-of-the-first-to-know/feed/03592Full dustjacket for The First To Know!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/full-dustjacket-for-the-first-to-know/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/full-dustjacket-for-the-first-to-know/#commentsMon, 14 Aug 2017 16:21:31 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3452Check out the full dust jacket for The First To Know! It will be hitting stores in less than three months (November 7, 2017 from Harlequin Teen) but you can preorder it now! Links on the The First To Know book page. Click to enlarge]]>

Check out the full dust jacket for The First To Know! It will be hitting stores in less than three months (November 7, 2017 from Harlequin Teen) but you can preorder it now! Links on the The First To Know book page.

Click to enlarge

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/full-dustjacket-for-the-first-to-know/feed/23452Signing & ARC Giveaway!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/signing-arc-giveaway/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/signing-arc-giveaway/#respondThu, 20 Jul 2017 16:13:33 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3431I'm doing a book signing at Barnes & Noble Desert Ridge in Phoenix on Saturday, July 22nd from 2 pm - 6 pm (along with several other YA authors including Stephanie Elliot, Tom Leveen, Paul Mosier & many more!). In addition to signing If I Fix You, I'll also be giving away an ARC of The First [...]]]>

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/signing-arc-giveaway/feed/03431Q&A Video| Writing w/ paralyzed hands? Going on The Tonight Show? Writer’s block?http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/qavideo/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/qavideo/#respondThu, 11 May 2017 15:55:41 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3274One of the many cool things I got to do for YALLWEST last month was answer questions from the Teen Ambassadors. Since I get asked these questions a lot I thought I'd post a Q&A video answering some of them. Feel free to leave more questions in the comments or through the FAQ form. [...]]]>

One of the many cool things I got to do for YALLWEST last month was answer questions from the Teen Ambassadors. Since I get asked these questions a lot I thought I’d post a Q&A video answering some of them. Feel free to leave more questions in the comments or through the FAQ form.

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/qavideo/feed/03274YA Scavenger Hunt w/ Kathryn Holmes & Bonus Giveaway!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/ya-scavenger-hunt-w-kathryn-holmes-bonus-giveaway/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/ya-scavenger-hunt-w-kathryn-holmes-bonus-giveaway/#commentsTue, 04 Apr 2017 17:00:24 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3181Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from [...]]]>

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt.There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the PINK TEAM–but there are also RED, BLUE, GOLD, & PURPLE teams giving away different sets of books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the pink team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 9th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting Kathryn Holmes on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Kathryn Holmes grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, where she was an avid reader and an aspiring writer from an early age. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and piles upon piles of books. A graduate of The New School’s MFA in Creative Writing program, Kathryn works as a freelance dance journalist, among other writing gigs. She is the author of The Distance Between Lost and Found and How It Feels to Fly.

HOW IT FEELS TO FLY

By Kathryn Holmes

A struggle with body dysmorphia forces one girl to decide if letting go of her insecurity also means turning her back on her dreams.

Sam has always known she’d be a professional dancer—but that was before her body betrayed her, developing unmanageable curves in all the wrong places. Lately, the girl staring back at Sam in the mirror is unrecognizable. Dieting doesn’t work, ignoring the whispers is pointless, and her overbearing mother just makes it worse.

Following a series of crippling anxiety attacks, Sam is sent to a treatment camp for teens struggling with mental and emotional obstacles. Forced to open up to complete strangers, Sam must get through the program if she wants to attend a crucial ballet intensive later in the summer. It seems hopeless until she starts confiding in a camp counselor who sparks a confidence she was sure she’d never feel again. But when she’s faced with disappointing setbacks, will Sam succumb to the insecurity that imprisons her?

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Hello, YA scavenger hunters!

My second book, HOW IT FEELS TO FLY, is about a 16-year-old ballet dancer with body image and anxiety issues who gets sent to a therapy camp for elite teen artists and athletes after she starts having panic attacks. I’ve written before about the ways in which this book draws on my own history as a dancer—check out this post on Epic Reads and this post on the blog It Starts at Midnight—but I have yet to share any actual writing from when my struggle with my body image was at its peak. Luckily for you, I’ve recently rediscovered a lot of my childhood and teen writings. (Thanks to my parents for cleaning out the house where I grew up!)

For this YASH, I’m excited to share two poems about ballet, both from my writing youth. The first is from 8th grade—before the body image issues hit too hard. The second, I wrote around age 19, when my relationship with my body and with the dance world had changed pretty dramatically.

So without further ado…

“The Big Night” (1996)

I’ve known my part for weeks and weeks.I know I cannot fail.But somewhere deep inside of me,my doubts start to prevail.Will I fall? Will I get hurt?I simply do not know.But all my nervousness is lostbackstage before the show.Then I step out onto the stage,with intense concentration.I jump, I turn, I twist, I leap,my mind fills with elation.For I’m not nervous anymore,no time to think right now.I stop, the world still spinning,and take a single bow.

“Swan” (2002)

The company didn’t send anything biggerthan a medium, and so we’re sent downstairswithout our feathers, leotard-clad fledglingswith broken wings and bleeding feet.

Odette follows us to the dressing room, watchesas we cover ourselves, trying to slip back intostreet clothes without exposing bare skin.“You know,” she says, smiling, “it’s a good lesson.Look at a swan: graceful, elegant, light.That’s what you must be—weightless.”

We apologize, faces hot with sweat and shame.It’s our fault. We don’t look like the rest.There’s a reason we’re at the back of the flock.(love for it can only go so far…)

Listening, I’m grounded, pinned to the earthby a few extra pounds and a “normal” waistline.She keeps talking about how easy it is to fly.

The second poem is about an incident that really happened, when my high school ballet company performed an excerpt from Swan Lake. A version of that story made it into HOW IT FEELS TO FLY, as one of main character Samantha’s most humiliating memories. And yes—there’s a good chance the last line in this poem inspired the title of the book, although I didn’t make the connection until after HOW IT FEELS TO FLY was already on shelves… J

Enjoy the rest of the scavenger hunt!

~Kathryn Holmes

CONTINUE THE HUNT

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Kathryn Holmes, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is27. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the pink team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

BONUS GIVEAWAY

Praise for If I Fix You

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/ya-scavenger-hunt-w-kathryn-holmes-bonus-giveaway/feed/523181Mega YA Giveawayhttp://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/giveaway/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/giveaway/#commentsMon, 06 Mar 2017 13:00:50 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=3109THE MEGA YA GIVEAWAY The First To Know, my second contemporary YA novel is hitting shelves in nine months (November 7, 2017 from Harlequin Teen), but the ARCs are going to be here a lot sooner so I thought I'd host a giveaway. And not just any giveaway, a Huge, MEGA YA giveaway full of my [...]]]>

THE MEGA YA GIVEAWAY

The First To Know, my second contemporary YA novel is hitting shelves in nine months (November 7, 2017 from Harlequin Teen), but the ARCs are going to be here a lot sooner so I thought I’d host a giveaway. And not just any giveaway, a Huge, MEGA YA giveaway full of my books, my favorite books, the upcoming books that I can’t wait for, and a $50 Amazon gift card, a Kindle Fire, or Amazon Echo Dot (i.e. the coolest device ever!).

The winner will receive:

A signed set of my books including the first ever ARC of The First To Know and a hardcover of my first contemporary YA novel If I Fix You, along with bookmarks.

Your choice six books (total) from my lists of favorites and most anticipated contemporary YA titles

Your choice of a $50 Amazon gift card, a Kindle Fire, or an Amazon Echo Dot (choice of black or white)

Enter via the widget below. This giveaway is US only (I’ll be hosting international giveaways in the future). If you pick a book(s) that haven’t be released yet, they will be pe-ordered and delivered upon publication. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss future giveaways.

]]>http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/giveaway/feed/133109THE FIRST TO KNOW is available for Pre-Order!http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/the-first-to-know-is-available-for-pre-order/
http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/the-first-to-know-is-available-for-pre-order/#commentsThu, 16 Feb 2017 16:43:15 +0000http://abigailjohnsonbooks.com/?p=2977I included the links in my Cover Reveal post, but this news deserves its own post! Not only does The First To Know have a beautiful cover but it's available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Changing Hands Bookstore, Indie Bound, iBooks, Books-A-Million, Google Play, and Kobo! I'm ridiculously excited for you to read this book (and If I Fix You [...]]]>

Description:

To tell or not to tell?

Dana Fields’s father never knew his parents. When Dana secretly does a DNA test for her dad, hoping to find him some distant relatives for his birthday, her entire world implodes. Instead of a few third cousins, Dana discovers a half-brother her age whose very existence means her parents’ happy marriage is a lie.

Dana’s desire to know her half brother Brandon and the extent of her dad’s deception, clashes with her wish not to destroy her family. When she sees the opportunity to get to know Brandon through his cousin, the intense yet kind Chase, she takes it. But the more she finds out about Brandon, her father’s past and the irresistible guy who’ll never forgive her if he discovers the truth, the more she sees the inevitable fallout from her own lies. With her family crumbling around her, Dana must own up to her actions and find a way to heal the breach—for everyone—before they’re torn apart for good.